The "Basin" is a bit of a misnomer, but when you first arrive there you
might think it well-named. You are surrounded by tall mountains, some of which
are populated by huge Easter-Island-like rock formations high on their slopes.
As on the Grapevine Hills Trail, you
may get the feeling you are being observed. These pillars of rock are due to
jointing patterns
like those at Grapevine Hills.

A basin is a place where water and/or sediment collect. This is
not exactly true for this remarkable geologic feature. However, it's almost a
basin in the sense there is but
one avenue of escape for water that runs down the mountainsides after a desert
storm: the "Window". Facing west-northwest, the Window overlook is a favorite
gathering spot at sunset for lovers and photographers. (See the second image
below.)

The water spills down what is called a "pouroff" (more about these when we
get to Burro Mesa) as a waterfall into Oak Creek through Oak Canyon, but this
only happens infrequently, usually a few times during the so-called monsoon
season. In the view above (pirated from the - apparently now defunct - Basin
Webcam on a particularly clear day) you see Amon Carter (left) and Vernon
Bailey Peaks framing the Window. You are looking over the pouroff to Oak
Canyon, over Burro Mesa, toward Study (pronounced "stoo-dy") Butte. The two
peaks framing the Window are due to an episode of
felsic (that is, high in
silica)
igneousintrusion, the Ward
Mountain intrusion that occurred
approximately 32 million years ago. The dark mountain in the middle distance
is Bee Mountain, another intrusion of felsic igneous rock. (This is a different
mountain from the Bee Mountain near Kit Mountain inside the park.) Behind Bee
Mountain (and difficult to see) is Leon Mountain, which was formed by a
basalticsill), and behind
this mountain is the more prominent Sawhill Mountain, a
volcanic plug (a mass
of solidified lava in the throat of a volcano). The two
mountains on either side, and in front, of Bee Mountain are Maverick Mountain
(left) and Indian Head Mountain (right). The
town of Lajitas and Lajitas Mesa are out of view off to the left. This picture
is foreshortened by about a factor of three due to the 3× magnification of
the webcam, so that all objects are three times as far away as they appear. (Actually, more like 3.5 times farther away due to image enlargement.) Bee
Mountain, for example, is about 15 miles distant.

It's morning and time to hit the trail to the South Rim. This is a rather
lengthy hike that many like to turn into a two-day event. The trail takes you
up the east side of the Ward Mountain intrusion. Everywhere,
there is igneous intrusive rock. So as you make your way along the trail
enjoying the scenery, you are taken aback when you look down and see, of all
things, Cretaceous
fossils! (See photo below.)

Had I examined the geological maps before we took off on our hike (I only had
the now superceded map of Ross Maxwell, geologist and first park
superintendent), I would have seen the green color-coded Cretaceous rock on the
map along our route. On
the other hand, this made for a delightful surprise discovery: Cretacous
Inoceramus clams exposed
on the trail. This was like unexpectedly running into a dear friend at a
foreign tourist spot. I was familiar with these fossils
from their presence in the Cretaceous Anona Chalk of northeast Texas and
southwest Arkansas. Here, they are found in the Boquillas limestone. (Note
that absolutely no samples of fossils or rocks were taken by us from the
park. Not only is this unlawful, but it is an act of great selfishness. Our
hiking and backpacking philosophy is, "Take nothing but pictures; leave nothing
but doots.")

In this picture you see the reddish igneous rocks of the
Oligocene
Ward Mountain intrusion but also light and dark gray rocks. These are remnants
of the older Cretaceous rocks the magma that formed the Ward Mountain intrusion
squeezed into and between. Present are formations familiar from other parts of
the national park: the Boquillas, Pen, and Aguja Formations; except here they
have been forced up 2000 feet or more by the intruded magma. The scale of the
new USGS map (Scientific Investigations Map 3142, 2011) is not large
enough for me to be sure about the identification of the Cretaceous units. I
originally thought the dark gray rock was the Pen, but the map indicates it
is the Aguja and the light gray is the Pen. The Boquillas does not appear in
the area of the photograph on the map, but does outcrop to the north along the
trail and farther south.
Stratigraphically,
the Aguja lies above the Pen and the Pen above the Boquillas, but these rocks
have probably been significantly contorted by the intrusion.

Farther up the trail you begin to gain some altitude and get more of an
overview of the Basin. The photograph below was taken as we ascended
toward the heights occupied by the South Rim Formation of
volcanic origin.

You see another intrusion of the Oligocene igneous activity,
32-million-year-old Pullium Peak. Due to its resistance to erosion, it, like
the mountains along which you are hiking, has become a
topographic high. On the right, behind the west flank of Casa Grande Peak, is
Green Gulch, which is followed by the road that accesses the Basin. Casa
Grande is topped by the Boot member of the South Rim Formation - in this case
volcanic rock of rhyolitic
composition that forms an erosion-resistant cap. In fact, as will be seen
later along the South Rim Trail, the Chisos Mountains owe their existence to
the protective cover afforded by the South Rim Formation. The Basin was formed
where the South Rim was breached by erosion, allowing erosive forces to hollow
out an expansive bowl in the exposed, less resistant rock. Finally, note the
cute little igneous erosional remnant near the center of the photograph,
which my brother fondly refers to as the "Nubbin". The Nubbin is in the
vicinity of the park development in the Basin and is apparently part of the
32-million-year-old intrusion that created the mountains on the west, north,
and east side of the basin.